• Pre-Season

Wenger curses 'nightmare' World Cup

Arsene Wenger has described his pre-season as a "nightmare" after the World Cup left the Arsenal manager with little time to get his squad ready in time for the new Premier League season.

Arsenal head to Austria on Monday for a training camp following a 1-0 defeat to New York Red Bulls at the weekend, but new recruit Alexis Sanchez will not be able to join up with his new team-mates as he has to head to Paris to get a visa.

And with the club's German trio Mesut Ozil, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker handed an extended rest after their World Cup-winning antics, Wenger has been left to work with a skeleton squad since the Brazil showpiece ended.

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Arsenal will pay up to £16 million for Calum Chambers © PA Photos

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"The problem is our pre-season will be very short," Wenger said. "These post World Cup years are a nightmare for us because we have no preparation.

"The real work starts now and then the Emirates Cup this weekend."

Wenger would liked to have taken Sanchez to Austria, but the £32 million signing will have to wait to meet his new team-mates.

Wenger added: "Sanchez will not come to Austria because he has to go to Paris to get a visa, so he will only go to London Colney on Tuesday and we come back on Thursday, so he will work in London."

Other new signings, Calum Chambers and Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina, will travel to Austria to be introduced to the squad, as will forwards Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Yaya Sanogo, who missed Arsenal's US trip.

"I wanted Oxlade-Chamberlain to have a good basic work because he lacked that a little bit last season. We haven't done a lot of training in the last two days so I wanted him to have a good basic work and stay with the fitness coaches.

"Sanogo didn't come because he had a little thigh problem and we didn't want to take a gamble."

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